Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to mobile network services and subscriptions for the services granted by network service providers to individual users. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present disclosure relates to a user being able to pass permission for the subscribed services between a plurality of devices.
Description of the Related Art
Network service providers, otherwise known as mobile network operators (MNO's), manage mobile network infrastructures. The mobile network infrastructure permits a user (i.e., a “subscriber”) with a mobile device to make voice calls, send and receive data, and pass text messages to other computing devices. The other computing devices can be telephones, computer servers, mobile devices, handheld devices, tablets, wearables, machine-to-machine devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or other connected devices that receive or otherwise subscribe to network-provided services. In a conventional mobile network system, a one-to-one relationship is created between the network service provider and the particular mobile device owned or otherwise operated by a single subscriber.
Generally, a network service provider will provision a subscriber identity module (SIM) associated with or stored in the memory of a particular mobile device for operation on its mobile network. The provisioning operation entails creating a subscription in the mobile device and associating the subscription, in computing hardware operated by the network service provider, with a set of services contracted for by the subscriber. As used herein, a “subscription” may interchangeably also be referred to as a “profile.”
After the mobile device is provisioned, when a user desires to camp onto the network, the device will attempt to attach to the network by sending an activation request. In response, the network service provider sends an authentication challenge to the mobile device, or specifically to the SIM, which uses the challenge and the provisioned credentials to create a unique authentication result. The mobile device sends the unique authentication result back to the network service provider. The network service provider locally computes the authentication result to compare the received result with the calculated result before allowing the user to access the services. If the two results are identical or otherwise validated, the mobile device is activated.
Subsequently, when the subscriber desires to use the services, the particular mobile device will wirelessly transmit its device identifier and additional information from the active subscription to a computing device managed by the network service provider. The network service provider's computing device verifies the device identifier, and in some cases additional information, before permitting the particular mobile device to access the services. If the particular mobile device is requesting use (e.g., a voice call, an Internet session, or a text message) of a contracted service, then access is granted. If the service is not permitted, then access to the service is withheld.
A network service provider may have relationships with hundreds, thousands, or millions of individual users, also known as subscribers. For each subscriber, the network service provider activates a subscription, which is stored in the SIM associated with the mobile device or stored in the subscriber's mobile device memory.
When a network service provider determines that services should be denied or otherwise withheld, for example, if a user has failed to pay for service or lost the particular mobile device, the network service provider will deactivate the subscription associated with the particular mobile device.
All of the subject matter discussed in the Background section is not necessarily prior art and should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its discussion in the Background section. Along these lines, any recognition of problems in the prior art discussed in the Background section or associated with such subject matter should not be treated as prior art unless expressly stated to be prior art. Instead, the discussion of any subject matter in the Background section should be treated as part of the inventor's approach to the particular problem, which in and of itself may also be inventive.